The Back Story

July 28, 2014

If your anchor rode is all chain, or a lot of chain, you should (must?) use an anchor snubber. For sailors that anchor mostly with rope, an anchor snubber is a short length of rope which you attach to your chain. It is used to take the direct anchor load off the windlass and to add a bit of elasticity to your rode and reduce shock loads.

It's the "attach to your chain" part of things that gets tricky. We've always used a simple galvanized metal chain hook. It has a few drawbacks - after a while it gets to look like the picture. Because we have a catamaran, our snubber is a bridle arrangement that goes to both bows and meets in the middle at the chain. The legs of each bridle section are about 25' long. I'd dutifully hook my chain hook to the chain, let out more chain until the bridle snubber took the load and call it good. If we were anchored in less than 25' of water, and the weather was calm, the hook would end up on the bottom, and more often than not, it would detach from the chain. This was a headache to put it mildly.

So I've started using a Better soft shackle made from 1/4" spectra rope (fits inside 5/16" chain). It's easy to open and close, and never lets go of the chain. You can do it up on deck and the snubber won't pop off the chain as it goes over the bow roller. People test these shackles at well over the breaking strength of 1/4" spectra - about 7500 lbs. So it will be strong enough for a snubber. And it's cheap, never rusts, and is easy to replace if I drop the shackle in the water!

Two closing thoughts - I'm using dynamic climbing rope for the snubber. Fantastic stuff and you can easily watch it stretch 20% of more in a blow. Much stretchier than 3 strand nylon. It really absorbs the force of a wind gust at anchor and reduces that dynamic loading on the anchor rode. This type of rope can't be easily spliced so the eye in the middle is just a seizing.

2nd thought - If you're a monohull, without a bridle, you can ignore this part. Our anchor rode is a mixture of about 160' of chain and about 160' of rope spliced to it. We don't really need a snubber when we get to the rope portion but we do use one; the bridle keeps our boat pointing straight into a strong wind when the monohulls nearby are shearing back and forth. To attach a snubber to the anchor rope, I use a 3/8" prussik loop and then attach the snubber soft shackle to the prussik. The prussik doesn't slide up the anchor rode when tightened a bit.

July 26, 2014

As we wove past freighters and work boats, and inhaled the
dust of heavy industry on our way into Gladstone Harbour
I was reminded of a town review I’d once read. It was in Lonely Planet, Mexico and the
sole entry for the place was, “X has a bus station and a train station. Use
them to get out.”

Gladstone: not even a little bit scenic

Happily a cheap mooring buoy, even cheaper laundry and the
chance to see my first wild red-tailed black cockatoo soon
redeemed Gladstone.
But in all honesty we didn’t really hit the area’s highlight until we had motored
out past the coal heaps, refineries and LNG plants and on into Curtis Narrows.

We
could have left Gladstone
the way we came in and carried on up the coast in the deep water. But who turns
down a chance to meander through a mangrove wetland. The chance of bugs and
salt water crocs aside—it was cool to make our way through narrows that can
only be traversed at high tide.

winding through the narrows

We
hit the shallowest patch at the highest tide. Normally dry at low tide we wound
our way past markers and squeezed past the few boats that came from the
opposite direction. At one point we passed a fence—when we called Maia to see
it she was surprised to realise we were sailing over a cattle crossing.

Monte Christo Cattle Station, was established on Curtis Island
in the 1860s (once upon a time they even bred horses there for the British India Army).
But time, and a huge amount of development on Curtis Island,
means the station may have seen its last round up two years ago.

By mid-morning we back out at sea—Great
Keppel Island
chosen as our next stop.

July 25, 2014

When we were crossing the Pacific Maia had a homeschooling
segment on explorers and navigators. I was really into it. While we had modern
navigation tools at our disposal, Cook had a sextant, chronometer and lead
line. While we had paper and electronic charts, he was making the charts. I
found it fascinating to anchor where Cook anchored and explore the route he
explored. To say I was impressed at his skills doesn’t begin to cover it.

Sleepy but sweet: 1770

Maia, however, was less than enthralled. By about Tahiti she was ready to move on. By Australia her
reaction to Cook was similar to that of the Aboriginal people who encountered
him in Botany Bay; they ignored him and told him, “Warra warra wai” (go away).

Visiting 1770 in Queensland
(Cook’s first landing point in Queensland)
didn’t change Maia’s disinterest. While she chuckled (halfheartedly) at the recollections of
the local aboriginal people who found Cook & co a bit daft for getting
themselves stung by ants and poisonous caterpillars, and for collecting up
useless plants, I’m pretty sure she would have liked to have banned all talk of
Cook on our ‘let’s hike where Cook hiked’ hike. Actually, she suggested we ban
him.

Happily for Maia, as I was trying to rouse her interest in
speculating about which 33 plants Banks may have collected on his walk, she
noticed butterflies.

And then more butterflies.

Within a few minutes it was pretty clear that as cool as
Cook was—thousands and thousands of blue fluttering insects beats history.

It turns out the Blue Tiger butterfly breeds up here. Come
spring they’ll migrate south to Brisbane and as
far as Victoria.
For one enchanted walk though, they were all ours. Their wing beats sounded like
a breeze blowing through the canopy—and in places it was impossible to see the
tree trunks

for all the butterflies that clung to it.

I mentioned to Maia that it would have been cool if Cook had
arrived during butterfly season and asked her what she thought his journals
would have said.

July 22, 2014

Today we’re celebrating our 5th cruisiversay by
hiking where Captain Cook hiked. He arrived here, in the town of 1770, in you
guessed it; 1770. After exploring the shore and hiking up Round hill he wrote, “In
this place there is a room for a few ships to lie in great security, and a
small stream of fresh water.

So here we are anchored in great security savouring where
the five years have taken us, how we’ve grown and changed, and what we hope for
the next few years.

July 17, 2014

I woke up feeling like I should be doing something. I wasn’t
sure what, but it seemed urgent. I double checked my deadlines, looked at the
weather, checked my email and calendar, and came up with nothing. It takes a
while for the restrictions of a nine to five life to fade away. By the time we
reached Australia
two and a half years ago we operated on a schedule that focused on sunrise and
sunset, weather reports and tourist visas. It reorders your day when you don’t
have to be somewhere specific by a certain hour.

crossing the Wide Bay bar

Beaches and more beaches

We’re rediscovering that.

It sounds idyllic, like an endless vacation, and in truth
the only way to let go of the urban anxiety most of us carry is to start off treating
this like a holiday.But then it’s time
to find our own rhythms and decide what we want to accomplish in the short,
near and long term.

Yesterday felt like my first day of ‘real’ cruising. I
finished off a story in the morning and then watched the dolphins frolic while
we sailed through the Great
Sandy Strait.
When the tide changed we chose an anchorage on a whim. Then Maia and I baked
and practiced our ukuleles and we watched the sun set and the stars grow
bright. The day felt just full enough; like I had time for everything.

gooey cinnamon buns

But then that nagging sense that there’s more to do, and not
enough time, crept back in this morning. I've always said we are sailing to
something, not away from anything. But when I counted the hours that stretch
before me today, I realized there are enough of them. If we’re sailing away
from anything it’s that; short days that are filled with too much.

following the markers in the Sandy Strait

Sailing is a very deliberate way to travel the world—and by
moving unhurriedly, you live slowly. And when you live slowly there is so much
more time.

July 10, 2014

Charlie the cat has come out of hiding. He tends to tuck
himself away when the engine starts or the sails come out. Usually he’ll stay
hidden until we drop anchor—but now that we’re sailing full days I guess he’s
resolved to be brave and face the open ocean.

We haven’t made it very far yet. When you consider a
sailboat moves at the speed of a novice runner, and because of a heavy whale
migration we are only doing day passages, we can, um, still see Brisbane. But the city is
behind us.

Unlike catching a flight, leaving by sailboat follows a looser
schedule. It’s kind of like the final weeks of pregnancy—you know the baby will
arrive at some point, but it’s better not to get too attached to a specific
day. We had an EDD, but went overdue enough that I think our friends and
neighbours started to pretend we weren’t actually still there. But then
everything aligned and we slipped the lines and headed away.

Our first day saw us tucked behind Peel Island,
sipping hot rum toddies as the sun set. Years ago we were given the advice to
leave in stages; get away from the hubbub and then regroup somewhere quiet before
really leaving. So that’s what we did. The wind was coming from the wrong way
to head north so we hunkered down and visited friends on Straddie. The 3-mile
dinghy ride in 25 knot winds may have been ill advised but the visit was worth it. And starting our way
north well-rested and well-organized feels right.

Now we’re en route to Mooloolaba. Whales are spouting in the
distance, Charlie is curled up against me, and it’s gradually sinking in that
we’re on our slow way. Behind us are wonderful memories and precious friendships that we hope will follow us into the future. Ahead of us? I guess we'll see.

About Me

Our family of three (+ feline) just finished sailing around the world. This blog contains the story of our travels and experiences, thoughts about the world, and on Maia's blog you'll also find the occasional rant.